Nevada jury awards Suen $70 mln in case against Sands

May 14, 2013|Reuters

LOS ANGELES, May 14 (Reuters) - The Las Vegas Sands Corp said a Nevada state court had awarded Hong Kongbusinessman Richard Suen $70 million after he sued the companyclaiming it had failed to make good on a promise to pay him forhelping it get permission to operate a Macau casino.

Lawyers for Suen were not available to comment and arepresentative for Sands did not provide any comment beyondconfirming the verdict.

Sands has said it won the Macau license without Suen'sassistance.

This is the second time a jury has awarded Suen in thematter. In 2008, a jury in Nevada state court awarded Suen $43.8million in damages, plus interest, but an appellate courtoverturned that verdict on the grounds that some of the evidenceused was inadmissible, according to court documents.

Suen's attorney John O'Malley said in court in April duringthe retrial that the amount his client was owed had increased to$328 million, based on an agreement for Suen to get $5 millionplus 2 percent of Sands' net profits in Macau.